Super Dad

Mr. Giovannoni thanks for being such a Super Dad lately.
It seems you're always picking up, where I slack off.

For the past year or two every time Dylan would see an advertisement for Monster Trucks he would get a twinkle in his eye and ask if some day he could go see the trucks.
Mr. Giovannoni managed to wrangle up some tickets and finally took Dylan to see Monster Trucks last month.
As if that wasn't enough to brighten Dylan's world as well as mine, Mr. Giovannoni gave me a nice break last night and took both kids to Disney on Ice.
How lucky could two little kids get then to have a daddy who takes them out and does things with them that they enjoy! Thanks Mr. Giovannoni for being such a good Dad and for giving me some much needed breaks!

Dear Mr. Giovannoni

Happy Anniversary Love!

1. Thank you for flipping me in the eye with a rubber band, nine long years ago, and then ignoring me after the first time we hung out.
2. Thanks for making it all better by making me your wife.
3. Thank you for giving me beautiful children.
4. Thank you for always fulfilling your responsibilities and taking such good care of us all.
5. Thank you for weathering my emotional storms.
6. Thank you for being a great example of determination and sheer willpower.
7. Thank you for being my opposite.
8. Thank you for these last eight years.

What on earth do you think the next eight years will bring us?

"Don't Forget It's Cooking Day"...

Those were the last words Dylan said to me this morning as he left for school.
Part of me smiled that he remembered and that he was looking forward to cooking today. Part of me cringed inside because I had no idea what it was we were going to cook.
Miss Alivia has been begging me for weeks to make homemade pudding ( a recipe she knows how to pull up by heart, on my Allrecipe App, on my Touch) and I almost gave into her until I remembered and got a craving for homemade Oreo's.
Sorry Liv's......
We followed this Homemade Oreo Recipe found on smittenkitchen.com

Someone even left a link on the site for Gluten Free Homemade Oreo's if any one in my family gets a craving for these babies.

They tasted pretty good right out of the oven, but I found that a little refrigeration and some resting time made these cookies even better. We'll definitely be making these again!!!
Alivia was so excited that she insisted on calling her daddy at work and telling him all about the cookies she made that she got to dip in milk.

Pretzels

Some how when I was a kid Winter was a magical time, I loved the snow and I loved the cold. Now days Winter feels more like a five month prison sentence. Being in the third trimester of a pregnancy hasn't helped matters either.
I've been pondering just what I could do with my kids that would kill some time and make some memories, without me having to freeze my toes off or over exerting myself, because it doesn't take much to do that these days :)
I like to cook and experiment with recipes, so I thought it might be fun to have my kids join in the fun at least once a week. This week I decided we'd try our luck out on Soft Pretzels.
We used Alton Brown's recipe from the food network website. They turned out okay, but next time I think I'd cook these babies longer on a lower temperature. Now I guess it's on to figuring out what to make next week.

Happy Birth Day

My little sister Cozette gave birth to this little sweetheart yesterday.

Introducing Braxton Vreeland...

I'm tickled to be an aunt again.

Congrats Cozette and Mitch

Life In a Nutshell

It's been well over a month since I updated this thing.
Here in lies the problem... Absolutely nothing has gone on around here.

Each morning I wake to a blaring alarm,
(Mr. Giovannoni has long since been up and out the door for work)

I drag my sorry self out of bed and make my way downstairs to wake Dylan for school.

After Dylan leaves for school, Miss Livie and myself crawl back into bed, where I quietly slip back off to slumber

and Miss Livie gets to watch a movie of her choosing.

We then get up, I stare at the computer, do a little cleaning here and there (and I do mean little), make some kind of nutritionally lacking lunch

after which, Livie and I then wait around for someone or something to entertain us until Dylan gets back home from school.

When Dylan gets home Miss Livie instantly latches on to the chance to amuse and entertain herself by torturing her older brother
and my quiet is shattered by screaming and fighting and a whole lot of "MOM... Alivia's doing this" and "MOM... Dylan's doing that".
It's about here that I observe my ever growing belly and wonder to myself, how on earth I'm going to be a parent to three children, and what my life is going to be like once Baby Giovannoni arrives.
After Alivia loses interest in fighting and I've stopped day dreaming or in most case day nightmaring what my life is about to become, Dylan and I then make our rounds of arguing about getting his homework done.
When that battle is finally over I begin the "what should I make for supper" inquiry.
Once I've smoothed out dinner plans, I realize I haven't got a single clean dish in the house
So I race to get the dishes and dinner done before a hungry and often overwhelmed Mr. Giovannoni walks through the door.
And at last the clock shows the magical and celebrated time of 8:00 pm and I tuck my children into bed.
I wonder to myself how I could be so utterly exhausted and yet find that I've accomplished almost nothing in the last 15 long hours. I sigh, give up and Mr. Giovannoni and I then gather our favorite bedtime accessories and head off to our bed
Were we each have a little uninterrupted quiet time.
Then we break our silence with a click of a few buttons and a whole lot of gigglesafter which I flip flop and toss around until I find my perfect spot in bed, snuggled up next to Mr. Giovannoni, where on occasion I confess my love for him and we both drift off to slumber.

A Week In Virginia

It's been a month since we left to go on vacation to Virginia, but I figured I'd post about it for our memories sake. Better late than never, right?
Our best friends Joe and Jen moved to Virginia for law school a while back and they we're kind and gracious enough to let us come camp out at their home for a week so we could have a family vacation.

Day One, November 11, 2009

Our first day on vacation was spent in transit to get to Virginia. I took Alivia to the bathroom just before our plane boarded and when we finished they had completely boarded our plane and our family was divided up amongst the few empty seats. Thank goodness a caring women gave up her seat so I could at least sit by Alivia. Dylan ended up next to two kind old ladies who humored him and his non-stop chatter for the entire 4 hour flight. My kids thought it was super fun to use the plane lavatory and I found myself always up and about taking one of them to the bathroom, while Derik caught a few zzz's.

Day Two, November 12, 2009
Happy Third Birthday Miss Alivia!

Derik and I took the kids to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center which is a Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
As you can see from the picture below the amount of aircraft housed in this museum is amazing, it has three different levels to view the air craft from.
Dylan Loved this Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, which just happens to be the fastest jet in the world.
I'm not much of a air-craft buff but something about the the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay caught my fancy, it's amazing to me that these huge chuncks of machinery can actually fly.
I think Derik's favorite part of the museum just had to be the transformers display.

We were all blown away by how GIGANTIC the Space Shuttle Enterprise actually is, these pictures just don't capture how big this thing really is. I can't believe they got the Enterprise off the ground little lone out into outer space!
After a few good hours of pounding the floor we took our kids out to the Donald D. Engen Tower, Which is an observation tower providing a 360 degree bird's eye view of Washington Dulles International Airport and the surrounding area. Again I was amazed to watch the amount of aircraft that is in the air at any given time.
Afterwords we treated Alivia to a kids meal at Wendi's for her third birthday.

Day Three, November 13, 2009

After lolly-gagging around most of the morning, Derik and I drove the kids out to Richmond to pick up his Marathon packet. It was a beautiful drive. I loved all the trees out there, although I did miss the presence of mountains. When we got back the kids all ran upstairs to Joe and Jen's room to watch UP. I have a sneaky suspicion that when all is said and done my kids will remember hanging out and having a blast with Joe and Jenny's kids more than they'll remember anything else from this trip.

Day Four, November 14, 2009

Race Day

Derik and Joe got up early and headed out to Richmond for the race. Jenny, myself and the kids hopped into the car a few hours later and arrived in time to see Derik cross the finish line. I tried really really hard to get a picture of Derik crossing the finish line but by the time my camera took the picture Derik was long gone, so all we got was a picture of his finishing time.

Derik we are all so impressed you ran 26.2 miles!

After the race we came home and ordered the most delicious pasta and pizza from a little pizza joint called Tony's.

Day Five, November 15, 2009

We went with the Walker's to church. When we got home Joe and Jenny cooked us the most delicious steak and potato dinner anyone could hope for. Afterwords Joe and his family took us to the DC Temple. I think this is the only photo we have where we are all together!

Always BEAUTIFUL, no matter where you go!

Joe then took us on a quick tour of downtown DC. When we arrived back home we had some cake and Alivia opened some birthday gifts.

Day Six, November 16, 2009
Downtown DC

The Washington Monument

World War II Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The White House
I was quite surprised to see that almost none of the White House is visible to the eye (although I guess it makes sense) This is as close as we came, the rear of the White House.
The Capitol Building
After hitting most of the big monuments, we rushed to squeeze as many of the Smithsonian Museums as possible, before they closed at 5:30.

The National Museum of American History was the first one we hit. We got to see the original Star-Spangled Banner -- the 200-year-old flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the U.S. national anthem, Julia Child's kitchen, my personal favorite the "First Ladies at the Smithsonian" exhibit, which features gowns worn by 14 first ladies, including Laura Bush and Jackie Kennedy, Dorothy's ruby slippers, Abraham Lincoln's top hat, and a watch that Lincoln had that had a secret message engraven upon it.
The National Museum of Natural History
We got to see all sorts of goodies at this museum. I looked forward to seeing the Hope Diamond
the renowned -- and supposedly cursed -- 45.52-carat beauty. Although I might agree with the cursed part because every time I finally got in a good position to see the diamond, the display would rotate and I'd miss seeing it in it's entirety. Dylan especially loved this museum!

The National Air and Space Museum
Although I was far more impressed with the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, we did get to see the very first contraption to achieve powered flight, the Wright brothers’ 1903 Flyer.
We could have spent all day in each one of these museums and monuments! We just barely scratched the surface of DC and we hope some day to go back and dig in a little deeper.
After a VERY long day of walking and walking, Derik and I decided to try out Five Guy Burgers. We have some out in Utah, but had never tried them before. I'm sorry to say that my burger was good, but it was just a burger, I went in there expecting something else I guess.

Day Seven, November 17, 2009

Derik and I had originally planned to return to DC on our own without the kids, but things sort of fell apart and we ended up just hanging out at the Walker's place. I know Derik was disappointed, but it gave us all a chance to just relax and have some fun together.

Day Eight, November 18, 2009

We packed our bags and headed home. We thoroughly enjoyed Joe and Jen's hospitality and our kids got along so well that I really didn't want to come home! Joe and Jenny I can't thank you enough for allowing us to be a part of your home and family for a week! We love you guys!!!
We actually got on the plane early enough that we all got to sit by one another this time *Yeah*. As the plane came up over the rocky mountains I realized just how much I love Utah and it's glorious mountains and that this little place will always be home to me.
Some day Derik and I hope to return to Virginia and see all the places and things we missed, but for now we're just going to relish the memories we have.